Lara Crigger at ETF.com has featured five investment advisors from various regions in the country, including Purview's Linda Zhang. They shared with Crigger the major concerns and the outlooks on the economy, policy and capital markets. Linda shared her concerns for a potential trade war turning into a capital market war. She also highlighted a possibly underestimated risk of poor policy coordination among major central banks, due to the fact that two of the top four central bank governors are new this year - the Fed and PBOC.

One of the tech giants, Facebook just lost over 20% of its market valuation since its recent peak on 2/1/2018. Please read this analysis by Linda Zhang, CEO of Purview Investments, addressing the role of corporate governance in investment process framework. Find out which ETFs, ESG inclined or not, have the most exposure to Facebook stock fluctuations.

Disclosure: This paper is a research piece. It does NOT represent the investment advice from the author about Facebook, nor the ETFs mentioned in the article.

Purview Investment's Linda Zhang was featured on the first of the Women in Finance Know Stuff interview series, newly launched by Elisabetta Basilico and Tommi Johnsen) in January 2018 in collaboration with Alpha Architect.

Zhang says: “The ESG concept has been relatively slow to catch on in the US compared with Europe. But the demand is rising, with limited full blown ESG ETF managed portfolios in the market. I feel there is a business opportunity and I have a passion and belief in many values represented by the ESG principles.

“I believe our value system evolves. For the most part of the last 15 years, I have been one of many portfolio managers who focused just on performance. I realise now that returns should not have to be the only goal. Many investors look beyond that and want to have a positive influence on the environment and society. Many people want to satisfy their conscience as well as to meet their investment goals.”

“Protecting the earth is not a political issue. It’s an economic, generational and personal issue,” Zhang says. “Each one of us needs to think about how we can preserve the earth we all live on.”

Zhang also wants Purview Impact Solutions to represent other values that are important, such as gender diversity in workplace, investing in firms who promote female talents to management and boards. As a co-founder of Women in ETFs, she gets it that diverse opinions lead to better decision making.

For the full interview, please check the title of this post for the link to the article.

Among many takeaways from Inside ETFs 2018 this past week, one trend is clear. More people are interested in understanding investments with environmental, social and governance principles. At least three panels sessions were dedicated to this issue, with topics ranging from how to apply ESG overlay in traditional investment process, to how to construct climate resilience portfolios, to how to stay true to the ESG principles without sacrificing performance.

According to Purview Investments' research on ESG ETF products listed on the U.S. exchanges, there are over 40 self-labeled ESG ETFs. The AUM of these ETFs are still small, yet are growing at a rapid rate. When we concluded our first comprehensive research in June 2017, the AUM in this category was just about $3.1 billions. As of Friday, January 26, 2018, the AUM has grown to over $4.5 billions. The product variety has also increased in fixed income. Last June, there was only one fixed income ESG ETF, and since then, three more have been launched. Although Blackrock's iShares and State Street's SPDR still dominate the space, other firms are catching up, with different approaches on product lineups. For more details on research findings and Purview Impact Solutions ETF managed product, please contact Purview Investments, info@purviewinvestments.com.

Tomorrow, the largest ETF industry gathering will take place at Hollywood, Florida. The event typically draws over 2500 attendees around the world, where ETFs issuers, index providers, market makers, data vendors get a chance to pitch directly to the end users, including advisors, family offices, institutional asset owner, ETF strategists and investment managers. Purview Investments will attend the conference to take the opportunities to engage in in-depth and in-person ETF research. Many meetings have been scheduled to speak to ETF issuers, index provider and market makers directly regarding ETFs potentially suitable for Purview Impact Solutions and future strategies.

Purview's CEO Linda Zhang will also attend the annual Women in ETFs (WE) Breakfast, a signature event for the nonprofit. This sold out event will feature a panel by industry female veterans and executives. WE was co-founded by five women, including Linda Zhang in 2014..

Purview’s initial product, Purview Impact Solutions, is a global multi-asset product built using primarily environmental, social and governance (ESG) ETFs as the underlying holdings. It will provide clients the opportunity to invest in companies around the world that are screened according to industry accepted ESG criteria. The investment solution is managed using Dr. Zhang’s proprietary research and process.

Dr. Zhang has built a successful career in the asset management industry and has spent the last several years focused on the fast-growing universe of ETFs. Prior to founding Purview, Dr. Zhang was Head of Research and Senior Portfolio Manager for Windhaven Investment Management, where she was responsible for portfolio management and led the firm’s research team in areas of global macro research, model development, ETF research and implementation. Before that, she held fund manager positions with MFS Investment Management and BlackRock, and was the head of Quantitative Research at State Street Research. Her background includes years of investing in global markets and analyzing how ESG principles can potentially have a positive impact on a portfolio through the use of ETFs.

“The rise of the ETF industry has fundamentally changed the way people invest and continues to reshape asset management. It has been a fascinating and fulfilling journey to experience. I am very excited to be embarking on my next chapter with the launch of Purview Investments and to introduce the first of what I expect to be a number of innovative new products,” said Dr. Zhang.

Dr. Zhang notes that while the ETF industry has done a remarkable job in building a wide menu of fund choices, what’s largely been missing is the means to bring all of the ingredients together through the active allocation of assets across funds. While robo advisors offer easy access to ETF managed portfolios, they are largely strategic in nature regarding allocation decisions among ETFs, rather than taking active views on various segments of markets. There are even fewer options available in the marketplace when it comes to aligning investments with an investor’s beliefs in ESG principles. “There is a rising demand for ESG focused investing, with US listed ESG ETFs increasing their AUM by about 25% in just the second half of 2017. Purview is committed to addressing this void and being a leader in the space by assembling individual ESG ETFs into well-researched and managed global multi-asset investment solutions,” said Dr. Zhang.

In addition to her work at Purview and other collaborations in the ETF universe, Dr. Zhang is a co-founder of Women in ETFs, which in just a few short years has grown to more than 3,000 members from around the world who work in the ETF ecosystem. She is a board member and most recently served as co-Head of the Global Mentorship and Leadership Committee.

Purview Investments, is an independent investment management firm, a Registered Investment Advisor, a provider of Exchange Trade Fund (ETF) managed solutions and in-depth ETF research based in Manhattan, New York City. As ETFs are reshaping the asset management industry, driven by investors' preference for effective and transparent investment products, Purview Investments seeks to provide research and process driven actively managed ETF solutions to both individual and institutional investors directly. In addition, Purview seeks to collaborate with ETF providers, index provider, institutional asset managers, investment advisers and asset owners to develop customized ETF managed solutions and on ETF product innovation. Purview Investments dedicates itself to public knowledge and education of ETFs by contributing to industry conference panels, business media and professional publications.